If Not

Written on 2/6/23  "How can we apply this to our lives?" the leader asks. The Bible study group sits in a circle with their notepads and pens poised. The room is silent.  Do you ever feel bad that you cannot come up with something? You see it laid out in our well intentioned "methods" . . . R.E.AP.  = Read. Examine. Apply. Pray. S.O.A.P = Scripture. Observation. Application. Prayer. Inductive = Observe. Interpret. Apply These are wonderful methods for studying the Bible and they help guide followers of Christ into rightly handling the word of God, but I have noticed how sometimes these methods can have their hangups. Currently,  have been going through In The Dust of The Rabbi  with a group. It is eye opening to be immersed in first century Galilean culture and imagine what the first disciples of Jesus knew and understood when Jesus said things like "come and follow me" or "my yolk is easy and my burden is light." These Jewish men would have memo...

**This was written 5/14/19 and never published. I am publishing it today because it still holds true.  I was sitting in a coffee shop with a blinking cursor on my blank screen. It had been weeks since I was able to “get away” and have some “me time” to write alone, and I kept glancing at the time ticking away on my parking meter saying, “Think! Think! Write! Write! It could be weeks before you get this chance again.” But in my silence before the Lord, questions rose before me: “What is the ultimate goal of carving out this vocational time? What am I really trying to say?”  I love writing. It is one way that I worship and serve God and it brings me great joy to do so. I found it hard to find the time to sit in front of a computer and write once I had children. There were always other more “pressing matters” that I could attend to during the precious moments of naptime. This created angst and a pressure to squeeze out something great every time I sat down to write.  ...